Russian archivists celebrate their professional holiday on March 10, 2010

They are often called “the memory keepers”. Russian archive employees are celebrating their professional holiday today. The 10th of March – this date is set in the memory about the “General Regulations”, worked up by Peter the Great – the state legal act, having for the first time defined the basics of archive business in Russia.

The reform of Peter the Great was continued by the legal acts of 1918-1919, which initiated the foundation of the Russian State Archive Service. Many generations of archivists have worked up the main directions of their professional activity: the ensuring of integrity of the documents, document collection and scientific usage. These directions are peculiar to the archive service RB in full measure, since it is considered a constituent part of the Russian Archive Fund. Along with the Archive Department under Government RB its system includes the Central State Historical Archive and the Central State Archive of public communities, the state institution “Archivist”, 62 municipal archives and more than four thousand departmental and branch archives.

At present time more than three million 700 thousand cases are deposited in the Republican state and municipal archives. 64890 documents are related to the category of especially valuable papers.